Concussions & Safety

Safety is our #1 Concern

The Camarillo Roadrunners take pride in providing a quality football experience to our youth. We’re constantly trying to find ways to improve, and strive to set ourselves apart from other chapters and other youth organizations.

Since the safety of our athletes is of paramount concern during any athletic endeavor, the Roadrunners leadership has embarked on a campaign to educate our own coaches, parents, and players on what a concussion is, how it must be treated, and the consequences of not treating a concussion properly.

The prevalence of concussions in contact sports has recently been receiving a great deal of attention nationally. In 2010 the CIF implemented a new rule on how a concussion is to be treated. There is legislation pending in California, and even the NFL is starting to admit there is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. There seems to be another story in the national press each week talking about long-term brain injury suffered by career NFL players who repeatedly suffered concussions without proper treatment. The prevalence of concussions appears to be much greater than many people previously knew, or admitted.

Anyone experiencing a concussion, especially youth who are still developing physically, can suffer serious long-term consequences if that concussion is not identified and treated properly.

We have updated our Coaching Manual to include 4 pages discussing concussions and requiring our coaches to follow specific rules to help prevent and properly treat head trauma. The Concussion Prevention and Management section of the Coaching Manual is available for you on this web site. The information in this section was gleaned from detailed research of multiple sources, including recommendations from the American Academy of Neurology. Parents and players are invited to read this section to better acquaint themselves with concussions and what we are doing to help prevent and treat them.

The Roadrunners are required to follow both PYFL and CIF rules, in addition to our own. The CIF rule specifically addressing suspected concussions is:

CIF Bylaw 313 – Play It Safer

A student-athlete who is suspected of sustaining a concussion or head injury in a practice or game shall be removed from competition at that time for the remainder of the day. A student-athlete who has been removed from play may not return to play until the athlete is evaluated by a licensed health care provider trained in the evaluation and management of concussion and receives written clearance to return to play from that health care provider.

To help our coaches identify possible concussions, we have provided the King-Devick sideline concussion test to our Midget, Junior, and Senior coaches. This test gives our coaches and medical personnel a tool to be able to objectively screen an athlete they suspect of suffering a concussion. Each football player on each of those teams will be tested to establish a base line test score prior to commencing contact in practice. Each of our coaches is required to follow the CIF rule on concussions.

Learn about concussions, what to look for, and how to care for them, before you need the information. Start with the Roadrunner Coaching Manual for a basic understanding. We have listed many other sources of additional information and guidance for you here on this site.

Each of us has only one brain, and it must serve us the rest of our life.

Head Games, a book by Chris “Harvard” Nowinski. This is a riveting account of Nowinski’s personal experiences in trying to come to grips with the long-term trauma he is suffering from multiple concussions suffered in high school and college football as well as in a WWE career cut short by that trauma. In it, he helps the reader understand what concussions are, describes the impact concussions are having on football players from youth through professional levels, and suggests some possible paths to solving the problem.